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Features of Valencian
Note that this is a list of features of the main forms of Valencian as a group of dialectal varieties that differ from those of other Catalan dialects, particularly from the Central variety of the language. For more general information on the features of Valencian, see Catalan language. Note also that there is a great deal of variety within the Valencian Community, and by no means do the features below apply to every local version. Phonology Vowels * Valencian has a system of seven stressed vowels ; reduced to five in unstressed position ( }}; ; /o/, /ɔ/ → ; /i/ → ; and → }}) (feature shared with North-Western Catalan and Ribagorçan). ** In some Valencian subvarieties, unstressed , and merge with before labial consonants (e.g. o'bert 'open'), before a stressed syllable with a high vowel (e.g. c'''o'nill'' 'rabbit'), in contact with palatal consonants (e.g. J'''o'sep'' 'Joseph') and in monosyllabic clitics; unstressed , , and merge with before nasals and sibilants (e.g. e'''nclusa 'anvil', ''e'ixam 'swarm'), and in some exceptional cases when preceding any consonant (e.g. cl'e'vill 'crevice'). Likewise, unstressed merges into when in contact with palatal consonants (e.g. g'''e'noll'' 'knee'), and especially in lexical derivation with -''eix'e'''ment/-''aix'e'''ment (e.g. coneix'e'ment 'knowledge'). ** Many Valencian subdialects, especially Southern Valencian, feature some sort of vowel harmony (harmonia vocàlica). In Valencian this process is normally progressive (i.e. preceding vowels affect those pronounced afterwards) over the last unstressed vowel of a word; e.g. h'''o'r'''a 'time'. However, there are cases where regressive metaphony occurs over pretonic vowels; e.g. t'''o'v'a'''ll'o'l'''a' 'towel', 'a'''f'e'ct'a'' 'affects'. Vowel harmony differs greatly from dialect to dialect, while many subvarities would alternate and , according to the previous stressed vowel (e.g. terra 'Earth, land' and dona 'woman'); others will favor just one realization (either in all, or some, instances; or ), thus, terra and dona can be pronounced and (by those who favor ) or and (by those who favor ). * The so-called "open vowels" (vocals obertes), and , are generally as low as in traditional Valencian. The phonetic realizations of approaches (as in English l'''a'nd'') and is as open as (as in English d'''o'g'') (feature shared with Balearic Catalan). * The vowel is slightly fronted and closed than in Central Catalan (but less fronted and closed than in Majorcan). Consonants * Voiced plosives are lenited }} after a continuant, i.e. a vowel or any type of consonant other than a stop or nasal (exceptions include after lateral consonants and after ). In the coda position (at the end of a word or syllable), these sounds are always realized as plosives except in some Valencian subvarieties, where they are lenited. ** Deletion of lenited between vowels following a stressed syllable (especially in feminine participles); e.g. fideuà ( < fideua'd'a''). ** Unlike other Catalan dialects, and are lenited in all instances (e.g. ''po'b'le 'village'). * The historical labiodental phoneme survives in most traditional subdialects, including the standard, but merger with is now dominant in Central and some Northern Valencian subvarieties. * Valencian has preserved in most of its subvarieties the mediaeval voiced prepalatal affricate (similar to the J'' in English "Jeep") in contexts where other modern dialects have developed fricatives (like the ''si in English "vision"); this is a feature shared with modern Ribagorçan. The presence of for in Valencian reflects the historical change > and the failure for to become (a feature shared with Occitan and standard Italian). Nonetheless, the fricative may appear as a voiced allophone of before vowels and voiced consonants; e.g. pe'ix espasa'' 'swordfish'. * Deaffrication of in verbs ending in -''itzar''; e.g. anali'tz'ar 'to analize'. * Most Valencian subdialects preserve final stops in clusters; e.g. : ca'mp''' (a feature shared with modern Balearic). The subdialect spoken in Benifaió and Almussafes, some south of Valencia, remarks these final consonants. * Contrary to Eastern Catalan dialects where all instances of are velarized (pronounced "dark"), Valencian alternates more often a clear l in intervocalic position with a dark l in the coda. The same also occurs in English accents, such as Received Pronunciation or South African English, as opposed to Scottish or American English where is always dark. * Valencian is the only modern variant that pronounces etymological final in all contexts, although this cannot be generalized since there are Valencian subvarieties which do not pronounce the final or only pronounce it in some contexts. Morphology * The present first-person singular of verbs differs from Central Catalan; e.g. -''ar infinitive: parlar 'to speak' gives parle 'I speak' as opposed to parlo, -''re'' infinitive: batre 'to beat' gives bat 'I beat' as opposed to bato, -''er'' infinitive: témer 'to fear' give tem 'I fear' as opposed to temo, and -''ir'' infinitive: sentir 'to feel' gives sent (pronounced ) 'I feel' as opposed to sento (all those forms without final -''o'' are more akin to mediaeval Catalan and contemporary Balearic Catalan), and inchoative -''ir'' verbs: patir 'to suffer' gives patisc or patesc ('I suffer') as opposed to pateixo. * Present subjunctive is more akin to mediaeval Catalan and Spanish; -''ar'' infinitives end , -''re'', -''er'' and -''ir'' verbs end in (in contemporary Central Catalan present subjunctive ends in ). * An exclusive feature of Valencian is the subjunctive imperfect morpheme -''ra'': que ell vinguera ('that he might come'). * Valencian has -''i''- as theme vowel for inchoative verbs of the third conjugation; e.g. servix ('s/he serves'), like North-Western Catalan. Although, again, this cannot be generalized since there are Valencian subdialects that utilize -''ei''-, e.g. serveix. * In Valencian the simple past tense (e.g. cantà 'he sang') is more frequently used in speech than in Central Catalan, where the periphrastic past (e.g. va cantar 'he sang') is prevailing and the simple past mostly appears in written language. The same, however, may be said of the Balearic dialects. * The second-person singular of the present tense of the verb ser ('to be'), ets ('you are'), has been replaced by eres in colloquial speech. ;Clitics * In general, use of modern forms of the determinate article (el, els 'the') and the third-person unstressed object pronouns (el, els 'him, them'), though some subdialects (for instance the one spoken in Vinaròs area) preserve etymological forms lo, los as in Lleida. For the other unstressed object pronouns, etymological old forms (me, te, se, ne, mos, vos...) can be found, depending on places, in conjunction with the more modern reinforced ones (em, et, es, en, ens, us...). ** Several variations for nosaltres, vosaltres ('we, you'): mosatros, moatros, natros; vosatros, voatros, valtros; also for the weak form mos/-''mos'' instead of standard ens/''-nos'' ('us'). * The adverbial pronoun hi ('there') is almost never used in speech and is replaced by other pronouns. The adverbial pronoun en ('him/her/them/it') is used less than in Catalonia and the Balearic Islands. * Combined weak clitics with li ('him/her/it') preserve the li, whereas in Central Catalan it is replaced by hi. For example, the combination li + el gives li'l in Valencian (l'hi in Central Catalan). * The weak pronoun ho ('it') is pronounced as more often than in other dialects, especially when coming after another pronoun (e.g. m'ho dóna , dóna-m'ho 's/he gives it to me'). However, when preceding a verb on its own it is pronounced as : ho dóna 's/he gives it'. Moreover, after a verb ending in a vowel it is pronounced as (e.g. dóna-ho 'you give it'); while, when following a verb ending with a consonant it is pronounced as : donar-ho 'to give it'. * The personal pronoun jo ('I') and the adverb ja ('already') are not pronounced according to the spelling, but to the etymology ( and , instead of and ). Similar pronunciations can be heard in North-Western Catalan and Ibizan. * The preposition amb ('with') merges with en ('in') in most Valencian subdialects. * Valencian preserves the mediaeval system of demonstratives with three different levels of demonstrative precision (este or aquest/''açò/''ací, eixe or aqueix/''això/''aquí, aquell/''allò/''allí or allà) (feature shared with modern Ribagorçan and Tortosí). Vocabulary ;Different spelling of words with the same etymology: * Cardinal numbers (8, 19, 68, 200, 1 000 000): Huit, dèneu, seixanta-huit (pronounced 'xixanta-huit'), dos-cents, milió (pronounced 'milló') for vuit, dinou, seixanta-vuit, dues-centes, milió, although dos-centes is also found outside Valencian and in many regions of Catalonia seixanta is pronounced ʃi'ʃanta, as in Valencian. * Meua, teua, seua for meva, teva, seva, a feature shared with North-Western Catalan. * Hui for avui. * Ordinal numbers (5th, 6th, 20th): quint, sext, vigèsim for cinquè, sisè, vintè, although the former are also found outside Valencian: la quinta columna, el vigèsim regiment. ;Different choice of words * For example, "please" in Catalonia is usually si us plau or sisplau, which is close to the French s'il vous plaît; In Valencian per favor is more common, which is closer to the Spanish por favor, although per favor is used in all the Catalan-speaking areas. Some other features, such as the use of molt de or the lack of hom or geminate l, are often given as examples of differences between Valencian varieties and other forms of the language. However, these are actually differences between colloquial and literary language and, again, may not apply to specific sub-dialects. Northern and southern variants of Valencian share more features with western Catalan (Lower Ebro river area for instance) than with central Valencian. Thus, some of the features listed previously do not apply to them. References